Mercedes Benz All Activity Vehicle Essay

The target costing case literature contains numerous examples of Japanese cost management practices; however, few cases describe the use of target costing by large companies outside Japan. The purpose of the Mercedes-Benz AAV case is to consider the competitive environment of a leading German automotive manufacturer and the company’s response to changing competitive conditions. The teaching plan generally follows the suggested student assignment questions. In places, I recommend considering additional material during the case discussion. These questions are identified by a check mark. Student Assignment Questions 1. What is the competitive environment faced by MB? Students will identify a number of changes, including significant market share lost to Japanese companies such as Lexus. Stress the importance of a cultural change taking place within top management at Mercedes. Reinforce that Mercedes is a company that had never lost money. They simply built the best car their engineers could design and priced it above cost. Demand often exceeded supply. As a result, cost had never been a primary consideration. Changes include: cost competition; product innovation. 2. How has MB reacted to the changing world market for luxury automobiles? Students should identify the following changes implemented by management at Mercedes; try to get them to explain how different these approaches were from traditional strategies at Mercedes: many new product introductions; partnering with suppliers; reduced system complexity; new emphasis on cost control; layers of management reduced; lead time from concept to introduction reduced. 3. Using Cooper’s cost, quality, functionality chart, discuss the factors on which MB competes with other automobile producers such as Jeep, Ford, and GM. If the instructor wishes to give a brief mini-lecture on Robin Cooper’s  survival triplet and confrontation strategy, this is a good point in the case discussion to do so. (Robin Cooper, When Lean Enterprises Collide, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1995.) The factors are: price-at mid to upper range of zone; quality-at upper range of zone; functionality-at upper range of zone. An interesting point to discuss is that Mercedes does not produce the most expensive sports utility vehicle. This distinction is reserved for the Land Rover; however, they strategically placed themselves toward the luxury end of the spectrum. Also, unlike many Japanese examples, Mercedes does not use target costing as a strict cost control mechanism to produce the lowest priced product in its class. 4. How does the AAV project link with MB strategy in terms of market coverage? The new introductions expand the product line of the traditionally luxury-oriented manufacturer. Recent product introductions include the following: A class; C class; SLK; E class; M class. These new introductions include new sports cars and off-road vehicles. The C-class is a mid-sized vehicle sometimes referred to as the baby-Benz. Let’s discuss the elements of the target costing model and how these elements are developed. At this point in the discussion I usually write the target costing formula on the board and ask students to consider sources of various inputs: selling price; margin; target cost. What are the sources of input for the projected selling price? Students will most likely identify the following sources of information: customer focus groups comparable products: – existing; – potential. Stress the broad, cross-functional aspects of acquiring consumer information. To compare products, the company had to evaluate existing competitive vehicles as well as vehicles under development. What factors are considered when developing the required margin? This question provides a link to finance classes. Most students have studied the concepts of weighted-average cost of capital. I recommend spending a few minutes reviewing these concepts and linking cost of capital to net present value (NPV) analysis. Because of the capital-intensive structure of automobile manufacturing, production volume is a critical factor in determining each model’s NPV. Students may identify the following points for determining a required margin. long-run profitability; cost of capital; profitability across the entire product mix (classes of vehicles); sales volume by class. The MB case suggests the target cost is â€Å"alive.† Is this consistent with the ideals of target costing? I generally emphasize that Mercedes did not consider the target cost to be locked in. It was a moving target. As engineering changes became necessary, the target cost was allowed to move. However, before making a change, market forces were considered. For example, changes included the addition of side airbags. In addition, the European press was critical of a simulated wood-grain part. Management decided the part would remain plastic because costs could not be passed on to the consumer. The main point to emphasize is the design of the vehicle is dynamic; thus costs must evolve to reflect the changing design characteristics. 5. Explain the process of developing a component importance index. How can such an index guide managers in making cost reduction decisions? The index development process has five steps, as follows: consumer importance category rankings; target cost percentage by function group; category: function group matrix; importance index; target cost index; I recommend making slides of Tables 1-5 to facilitate discussion. Index development is an important element in the early conceptualization phase of the AAV. The indexes help to quantify some very abstract concepts. Table 1. From conversations with potential consumer groups, a list of key categories was developed. Next, potential customers were asked to rate the importance of each category. Their responses were computed as a percentage. Thus, safety and comfort of the AAV were viewed as significantly more important than economy and styling. Table 2 represents a rough estimate of the cost by function group and the relative percentage. The information is used later to create a target cost index. Table 3 is best understood by reading each category as a column. The rows explain the relative importance of each function group to satisfying each category defined by customers. An interesting aspect of this table is that the link between consumer preferences and engineering components is made explicit. Table 4 builds on Table 3 by weighting the percentages computed in Table 3 by the importance percentage calculated in Table 1. The key point is to understand which function groups contribute the most (least) to important (less important) consumer categories. Table 5 results in a target cost index that attempts to capture cost and benefit trade-offs. As discussed in the case, this index may indicate a cost in excess of the perceived value of a function group. Thus, opportunities for cost reduction (aligned with customer requirements) may be identified. 6. How does MB approach cost reduction to achieve target costs? At this point, ask students to identify various value-engineering strategies. At Mercedes, reducing the cost of each function group was accomplished by reducing costs of various components that make up the function group. Stress the importance of this approach over an â€Å"across-the-board† cut. 7. How do suppliers factor into the target costing process? Why are they so critically important to the success of the MB AAV? From the conceptual phase through the production phase, the suppliers of systems for the AAV truly were partners. Suppliers attended regular meetings with the cost planners throughout the entire process. Thus, suppliers were design and development partners from very early stages of development, responsible for meeting cost targets. Why is the relationship with suppliers a crucial element in the success of the AAV? Suppliers provide entire systems for the AAV. The facility uses a JIT production system. In fact, many suppliers deliver directly to the assembly line, rather than to a small warehouse. The Black Warrior River separated Mercedes and a major system supplier. This supplier built a new production facility on the same side of the river as the Mercedes Benz plant to avoid possible delays associated with accidents on a major bridge. 8. What role does the accounting department play in the target costing process? Stress the fact that accountants were watchdogs in the target costing process. Their primary responsibility was to ensure costs did not exceed targets during the production phase. Thus, the accountants’ role was as follows: cost control; actual vs. target: development stage; production stage. What are some of the organizational barriers that may challenge managers attempting to introduce TC systems? Try to get students to identify various impediments to target costing systems in the United States. Examples may include: willingness to share cost data with suppliers; suppliers treated as adversaries; government regulations affecting exchange of information.

Life of Adele Essay

Better known simply as Adele, is an English singer, songwriter and musician. Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in Tottenham, north London, England, to Penny Adkins, an English teenager, and Mark Evans, a Welshman, on 5 May 1988. Evans walked out on Adele when she was two, leaving her 20-year-old mother to raise her single-handedly, for which Adele has still not forgiven him. She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with voices. Adele has cited the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that â€Å"they made me what I am today. † At the age of nine, Adele and her mother, a furniture-maker and adult learning activities organiser, relocated to Brighton. She remains an ardent fan of her hometown Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur. At 11, she and her mother moved to Brixton, and then to neighbouring district West Norwood, in south London. West Norwood is the subject for Adele’s first record, â€Å"Hometown Glory†, written when she was 16. After moving to south London, she became interested in R&B artists such as Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child and Mary J. Blige. Adele says that one of the most defining moments in her life was when she watched Pink perform at Brixton Academy. Adele graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in May 2006, where she was a classmate of Leona Lewis and Jessie J.  Adele credits the school with nurturing her talent even though at the time she was more interested in going into A&R and hoped to launch other people’s careers. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success. Adele released her second album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut, earning the singer six Grammy Awards in 2012 including Album of the Year, equalling the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night. The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness World Records. She is the first artist to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK. With her two albums and the first two singles from 21, â€Å"Rolling in the Deep† and â€Å"Someone Like You†, Adele became the first living artist to achieve the feat of having two top-five hits in both the UK Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since The Beatles in 1964.

Teresa of Avila Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Teresa of Avila - Essay Example She was born on 28th March 1515. Early in her young age Theresa was caught between the strict but honest father and romantic mother. She was caught between detached discipline and over attachment to worldiness. Though she lead an ordinary life , the sense of sin never left her, as she was drawn more and more into the worldly things like flirting and rebelling. At the age of 16, just to discipline her, her father had to send her to the Augustinian nun’s convent for education. Though she hated it first, she found the place less strict than her father; but due to illness she had to leave the place after 18 months. When the time came to choose between marriage and religious life, she chose the later because that was the only safe place for a person tempted by sin. She left for the Carmelite convent of the Incarnation at Avila were she was almost a loner. She started to learn and practice mental prayer to keep Jesus Christ always with her. But there were enough distractions in the convent. Nuns from the rich families were more attentive to their physical appearance than to their inner spiritual life. The prestige of a nun was measured not by piety but by money.

Salt Marshes Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Salt Marshes - Term Paper Example In the global view, salt marshes are common in all latitudes, and when they have grown for many decades, the mangrove forests replace the marshes. The mangrove takes over from the marshes because they thrive well in the salty aquatic environment (Biodiversity and Garden 351). For a marsh to form, it goes through a series of biological processes. It takes time for the angiosperms to accumulate so as to form the marshes. There are types of marshes that can cover the terrestrial habitats while others can extend and expand through trapping more sediments and colonization of the sediments (Pennings and Bertness 289). However, both habitats of salt marshes can be occupied by other organisms like birds, insects, mammals and marine living organisms. There are living organisms that survive well in salty environments while others thrive well in non-salty conditions, the freshwater aquatic animals (Charton and Facts on File 276). Salt marshes are an interesting part of the ecosystem because it involves the interaction of the physical and biological factors and how they form a natural environment that can be inhabited by other living organisms. The article on Coastal Eutrophication as a Driver of Salt Marsh loss says that the salt marshes are important in the ecosystem because they help to protect the coastal cities from storms and strong waves (Deegan, et al. 1). In the recent years, the salt marshes have been seen to be decreasing in sizes and some areas along the coastal line have no marshes.

Relaxation and Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Relaxation and Learning - Essay Example It is in these instances when learning a lesson or analyzing data from work necessitates the conditioning of a calm, open mind. There is thus nothing like getting one’s self into a relaxed, tranquil disposition in order to make the most out of a learning or thinking activity. Coming from a particularly taxing workday and before tackling the books for the next day’s lesson, I look forward to a warm soak in the tub. The lukewarm water and moisturizing suds not only wash off the day’s dirt and grime, but also its worries and consternations. A good 15 minute soak, coupled with measured deep breathing, feels like what a baby probably feels while it is in its mother’s womb; warm, secure, floating in perfect quietude. And maybe, some soft music and the scent of aromatic candles are welcome additions to soothe the other senses. At least three days in the week, I don running shoes and take a morning jog around the neighbourhood or in the park. There is nothing like the rhythmic pounding of concrete and a cool evening (or morning) breeze on your face as you savor the sights, sounds and smells of the neighbourhood/park. Running, for some reason or another, helps you sort your thoughts and think through problems, so that after a good run the world seems right again. At times when soaking in the tub or jogging in the park are not just practicable, I find that creating a mental picture or remembering an inspirational line helps put things in perspective and prepares me for heightened concentration. My favourite mental picture is that of gently rolling waves lapping the shore of a beach deserted but for a few people: white sand, blue sea, reclining chair, tall glass of iced tea in hand. This technique is useful for minute-long â€Å"mental vacations† to quickly get one into the proper mental frame for learning. Even during the process of learning, there is sometimes need to resort to quick calming techniques especially

Resalt of Modeling of optical parameters for optimum collection of Essay

Resalt of Modeling of optical parameters for optimum collection of concentrated solar radiation for photovoltaic devices - Essay Example 6.13) Best power exists when the distance between the Fresnel lenses and the CPC equal to the focal length, unlike when the focal length is less than the distance (Partain & Fraas 318). The phenomenon occurs because of loss in the concentrated beam that falls on the CPC. Besides, focal point forms at CPC if focal length is longer than the distance. Therefore, change in the path of the incident beam results into loss of the beam (Fraden 164). First law of refraction highlights the if the distance between the Fresnel lenses and the CPC equal to the focal length, most of the beam will concentrated at exit aperture (Lindenfeld and Brahmia 241) Moreover, the experiment established acceptance angle. Adjusting the Angle of incidence beam on the Fresnel lens (Tilt About x), when the distance between the Fresnel lenses and the CPC equal to the focal length as showing below. Based on the experiment, we identified that power generated by the CPV system decrease with increase in the Incidence angle (Luque 89). Whereas, at a point where power equal to zero, the Incidence angle becomes the Acceptance angle, usually (4o). Hence, the system limits deviation of radiation falling more than three degrees (Fischer 140). As shown in Table

Consumer Behavior Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Consumer Behavior - Essay Example . A lot of say is also from the word of mouth approach which suggests that the friends and family circles play a very positive and vibrant role in the whole equation. When we talk about the consumers’ needs of understanding their own self in a better manner, we must make note of the self concept which discusses a person’s understanding of his own personality and what does or does not echo his personal statements. This could include issues like his mood shifts that can happen with the changing seasons, the attachment of peculiar feelings with certain colors and going out of the way to buy a certain piece of cloth which is usually not considered a viable option when it comes to buying by the masses. Thus the self concept is quintessential since it underpins his own notions related with the fashion needs and in what manner he can best fulfill the very same. As stated earlier, the people who are considered amongst the aspired groups by the relevant sets of consumers, who ar e about to make a potential purchase, are the right people to which these consumers can actually focus their symbolic wishes and aspirations. This aspired group could be consisting of those people who are looked upon at by the consumers with a sense of desire and yearning and the consumers always make sure that they buy this just to remain attached with the aspired group.